220 Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting. 
form laws, uniformly enforced. It is too plain for argument 
that this uniformity can only be brought about on our side of 
the lakes by our national government. So forcibly have these 
things come home to us who live on the lakes, that at the meet- 
ing in Chicago which I have mentioned, it seemed to be the 
unanimous opinion of those present, that the entire matter of 
propagating, planting and protecting fish in our inland seas, 
should be put in the hands of the federal government. This is 
certainly and surely the only means of saving the food fishes 
which naturally thrive in them, for those who are to come 
after us. 
It remains to be considered whether this can be done without 
seriously infringing on the internal police powers of the several 
states. I most unhesitatingly assert that it can. It will be re- 
membered that quite a number of the powers granted the fed- 
eral government in the United States constitution were given 
only after acrimonious discussion. Grave fears were expressed 
that these powers would destroy the right of the state to regu- 
late their internal affairs. But we know now that they have not. 
Who now doubts the wisdom of the commerce clause of the 
federal constitution under which President Roosevelt broke the 
Northern Securities monopoly. Under it Congress has again 
and again asserted its right to regulate interstate commerce ; yet 
the Supreme Court of the United States has many times upheld 
state police regulations of such traffic. 
A few years ago the state of Alabama enacted a statute 1m- 
posing a penalty of $100, I think, upon telegraph companies 
which should negligently fail to deliver a message within its 
borders. A suit was brought against one company to recover 
such penalty, and it undertook to defend on the ground that the 
Alabama statute was an interference with interstate commerce. 
But the Supreme Court of the United States said it was not; 
that Alabama had a perfect right to inflict a penalty upon the 
company for not carrying out its contract within her borders. 
The federal government carries our mails and regulates 
their use, and no honest person is harmed by this exercise of 
federal power. 
In fact the people would not now tolerate state regulation of 
our postal affairs. Federal courts are given jurisdiction in all 
